


Skeletons in my closet

by Drowning_in_stardust



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Concerned Keith, Fluff, Injured Lance, Langst, M/M, Sick Lance, Voltron, Werewolf AU, Werewolf! Lance, klance, protective keith, shallura - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-01-11
Updated: 2018-03-26
Packaged: 2019-03-03 14:13:55
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 4
Words: 6,129
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13342932
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Drowning_in_stardust/pseuds/Drowning_in_stardust
Summary: Lance has a secret.A closet full in fact.He won’t let anyone in.Will keith be the exception?





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Heyo! This is my first fic, its terrible but ive had this idea for quite sometime, please enjoy.

Lance was never the type you’d think would have secrets. I mean he was always so outgoing, so loud and boisterous, you’d think him incapable of even attempting to keep a secret.

Oh but they’d be wrong. Lance has a secret. A closet full of them in fact. 

Lance had an inherited case of lycanthropy. 

Otherwise known as being a werewolf.

He was born with it. Most of his family was in fact. They were known far and wide as the McClain pack. A group of strong and fearsome wolves that ruled most of cuba’s supernatural underground. His family had turned out the strongest and most vicious alphas cuba had ever seen. 

And lance was no exception.

Though he wasn’t yet an alpha, he was known in his family as the vicious runt. 

He started out the runt if the pack, small, sickly, unable to handle his transformations. He was the runt and that was that. But over time he grew faster, stronger, bigger. Soon he had outgrown most of his brothers and nearly his father. 

Everyone was in awe. They had never seen growth on that scale. But they were proud nonetheless. But even though he outgrew his title as runt, he never quite outgrew his title of sickly. 

Lance was always ill. Always tired. His transformation took more out of him than any other member of the pack. They always assumed it was because he was just too weak to handle his transformations, but it turns out it was the other way around. The wolf was just too strong for him. 

His grandmother, being a talented potion master had cooked up a series of elixirs to help give his human half strength. 

And they worked! Slowly but steadily over time his transformations became less and less painful. Less and less exhausting. He was able to turn here and back like the wind. And he was ecstatic. Finally a way for him to live normally and keep up with his siblings. 

Even when he was at the Galaxy Garrison, his family would send the medicine monthly and everything was fine. 

That is until he got transported into an intergalactic war thats been raging on for 10,000 years. 

Sort of hard to send packages into the deep recesses of space. 

But lance managed like he always does and pushed forward without it. At first it was fine. The effects were in his system and as long as he didn’t transform, he wouldn’t overexert himself. 

But things never really go as planned.

It was a mission to infiltrate a well guarded galra base. The base contained outrageous amounts of quintessence and was being guarded to the death. 

They had the fun little job of busting in there and wreaking havoc! Yay. 

But it turns out it wasn’t going to be that easy. Somewhere along the way an alarm was tripped and the paladins found themselves surrounded all in different areas of the base. Shiro and pidge in the control room, hunk in one of the sectors on his way out, keith just outside of the base.

lance had been standing guard outside and was on his way to hunk who called for backup when a large group of soldiers intercepted him. The soldiers surrounded him, and lance was backed into a wall. His back was pushed up against the wall of the base as the soldiers kept a tight circle a few feet away from him.

They didn’t converge though. They only eyed his Bayard nervously. They seemed at a loss of what to do. These soldiers didn’t seem all that eager to fight a paladin of voltron. This could have been an advantage if lance wasn’t so focused on the fact that he was surrounded. Panic and feral instincts flared up inside him. You never corner an animal. They will do anything to get out.

He felt sharp deadly teeth start to slip out from behind his human teeth. He saw his nails grow to a point and he heard the scratching and cracking of bones beginning to break and reform. His instincts screamed at him to transform, to fight back. All he wanted was to tear his way through the circle of galra, all the way to freedom. 

He fought it though. Oh how he fought it. He bit down that instinct gnawing at his insides and took out his gun. He started shooting down the robots left and right, making a clean head shot every time. 

He had to have shot down at least twenty guards before he saw there would be no hiend. With every guard he shot down, two more would appear. He decided to call for backup. 

“Uh. I could use some help here?” He called into his helmet, not really expecting a reply. After a moment of just grunting and the sounds of his other team mates involved in their own battles, he gave up and continued to fight off the enclosing robots whilst biting down the burning pain starting to form. His stress level was rising with the amount of reinforcements being called. It was making the change harder to control. 

He kept shooting and shooting and shooting but they just kept getting closer. Eventually he didn’t have the elbow room to pull a trigger. He panicked. They just kept getting closer. It got hotter the air, the air got more dense as they started to grab for him. He dodged the best he could but found he didnt really have the room for that. They kept getting close. It just kept getting hotter, he felt his hold on his control start to pull away. 

Then one of the robots finally got a hold on his arm from behind and yanked it behind him roughly, bringing him to his knees. That was it. Out of instinct he let out a startled, inhuman snarl, startling the soldiers for a split second. 

Lance could feel his bones shifting even more and seeing no other way out of this, just let it go. 

Only a little tho.

He let his teeth grow to their full pointed length. He let his claws grow to be sharp and deadly. He felt his muscles pulse and move around, growing in size as they went. That was as far as he was willing to go. But it was enough. 

Lance ripped his way out of the guards hold and started smacking them around left and right. 

Clawing straight through their armor. Biting clean into their alien skin. He let out a fee vicious snarls and found he was enjoying himself. He smiled at a soldier he had pinned down, revealing a mouth of jagged teeth. The soldier whimpered, actually whimpered before he was swiftly taken out.

Not one was left standing. 

Lance stood over one of the bodies and realized what he had done. Regret bubbled up inside of him. He let himself slowly shift back, wincing in pain as his bones reverted to its original structure. He couldn’t help letting out a cry or two, and in the end was left on the ground painting heavily. His eyes drooped nearly closed and his whole body hurt. He hadn’t even fully transformed. He managed to bring a hand to his face and groaned in frustration and absolute loathing for himself.

Out of the corner of his eyes he saw the reinforcements that had come in making a run for it. He realized vaguely they had seen him transform and he would have to deal with that later but just didn’t care at the moment. 

He couldn’t believe he had done that. He was out of elixirs. He couldn’t rejuvenate like he could at home. He was stuck in space without so much as a recipe for the medicine his grandmother designed for him. 

Suddenly his coms flared up. 

“Guys what the heck was that?” Pidges voice came through.  
Lance froze.

“It sounded like a animal?” Hunk offered.

“Who was fighting an animal?” Shiro asked, concerned.

Lance built up the strength to sit up against the outside wall of the base. 

“Oh sorry guys i was walking by some sort of fucked up petting zoo. Its cool im out of there now.” Lance tried his best to sound normal but he couldn’t keep a slight breathiness out of his voice. 

“Language lance.” Shiro warned.  
Lance smirked. 

“Sorry dad ill get the soap you can wash my mouth out later.” 

Everyone groaned. Except for keith he was weirdly silent.

“Okay everyone. We gotta get out of here. Pidge and i took care of the guards here. What about any of you?” Shiro informed.

“Im good over here, they all retreated for some reason,” hunk said slightly confused.

“Same over here.” Pidge said.

“What about you keith?” Shiro asked after a moment of silence. 

“Oh. Uh. Yeah. All good.” Came his tentative voice. 

“Okay. Pidge found the room where they keep the quintessence. She’s sending coordinates. Randevu there. 

“Okie dokie fearless leader.” Lance sounded off before shutting off his coms.

This was so bad. Lance could barely move and he was expected to run across the base carrying a ton of quintessence, then pilot away. Just dandy. 

Lance tried to sit up further but found his whole body to be jelly. 

“Fuck.” He stuttered as a bead of sweat dribbled down his face. 

He was in so much pain, but he couldn’t let his team down. He tried to sit up once more with all the strength he could muster, and found himself standing. 

His surprise knew no bounds. 

“What the hell??” 

He was still tired still exhausted still in pain and yet, here he was standing up. What was happening.

A comforting purr echoed through his mind. 

Oh. Blue! His lion had helped him out somehow some way. He sent a feeling of gratitude out to his lion, and was happy when he felt love bounce back.

“Thank you blue.” He whispered to himself. 

Thats when he took off running to the room with the quintessence. His tried not to wince with every step but found it difficult. 

Soon he had found the room and his team all loading barrels of quintessence into the yellow lion. It was a large room with high ceilings. Plenty big enough to fit a giant robotic lion. When they spotted him shiro looked at him in relief.

“There you are. We were starting to get worried.” Shiro’s brows creased ever further when he saw how pale and sweaty lance looked.

“Hey are you alright?” He took a step forward towards him to which lance took a step back. 

“Ha. Im fine dad, just took a wrong turn or two.” Its cool. He gave shiro a smile. He didn’t look convinced but he didn’t push either. Shiro gave lance one last look before rejoining the rest of the team. Lance followed suit and started loading quintessence into the yellow lion. His limbs were screaming out for help but he found his body still functioned fine. He knew that was thanks to blue.

Before they knew it they had all the quintessence loaded up into the yellow lion and were ready to take off. 

Even though the mission was a success, they were all a bit uneasy about the lack of guards and generals for that matter. They had all just up and left the base. And that was scary. 

Shiro and keith made their way to their lions while hunk and pidge came over to probe lance.

“Wow bud you look rough. What happened?” Hunk asked moving to feel lances cheek. Lance took a step back to hunk’s surprise. 

“Im fine honestly just a bit tired from getting ambushed. Im good!” Lance tried to be convincing but saw from the unamused look on hunk’s face, that he wasn’t buying it. Pidge popped out from behind hunk and looked equally unconvinced.

“We all had to fight off an ambush jackass. You, however are the only one who looks like you just ran a 20k through the Sahara desert. “ lance didnt know what to say to that. Luckily shiro saved his ass.   
“Guys c’mon we gotta get going.” He called through the coms. 

“Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Coming.” Lance spoke. He turned to head back to his lion which was parked outside and saluted pidge and hunk as he went.

“See you on the flipside, hoes!” He called. He vaguely heard pidge shout profanities at him but wasnt really paying attention. He could feel the weight of his exaustion reaching a peak and had a sneaking feeling blue might not be able to help with that.

He made his way to his lion as quickly as he could and got out of there. He was glad blue was willing to take over because lance found his hands shook way too much to be normal and his eyesight had started to blur. 

Fortunately he made it back to the castle in one piece but was too tired to even get out of his seat. He just huffed and leaned back in his seat. Before he knew it his eyes were drooping and his consciousness was fading and he was out like a light. 

———

He woke to banging. 

He was so startled he seemed to have forgotten how battered his body was flew straight up out of his seat. He immediately doubled over and groaned in pain. His eyes were seeing double and for some reason he seemed to be seeing keith standing next to him in the cockpit looking business as usual. He rubbed his eyes and looked up at his teammate. He looked unsure but determined in some way. 

Lance was too exhausted for this and elected to instead slump back in his seat and close his eyes.

“What do you want, mullet?” He slurred. Keith didn’t say anything at first. But lance felt him tense at the question before he crossed his arms. When he still didnt say anything lance opened his eyes.   
Keith looked serious, like really serious. He squinted.

“Seriously. What is it?” He asked a bit more concerned. 

He took a deep breath and looked lance straight in the eye. He seemed to be searching for something. After a moment he closed his eyes.

“I saw you.”

Lance froze. Keith definitely saw the reaction and looked downright upset. His eyebrows loosened into something pitiful. 

He rubbed the back oh his neck.

“What are you lance?”


	2. Too much

“What are you, lance?” 

Lance was shocked. 

In all the things that were going on in his mind at that very moment nothing indicated what he should do in this situation.

Never in his wildest dreams had he thought a member of his team would learn his secret. 

He had always been so good at keeping secrets. 

Keith was waiting for an answer as lance just sat there like an idiot. Lance mouth moved before his brain could.

“Um. What?” He feigned. Keith frowned. 

“What do you mean ‘what’”? Keith said slightly exasperated. 

“Uh. What do you mean?” Lance’s voice was timid and unsure. Not to mention a few words slurred here and there thanks to exhaustion. 

Keith looked at lance incredulously. 

“Lance you really cant play dumb i literally saw you transform into that-into that thing!” 

Lance sighed and tried slumping further in his seat in an attempt to disappear. It didn’t work to his disappointment. 

His threw his head back with his hands over his face and let out another sigh, this time with more gusto. 

When he was done with his overly drawn out sigh he looked at keith straight in the eye. 

Keith was startled for a moment by lance’s intensity. 

“What do you want to know.” Lance relented, but he was not happy about it. 

Keith took a step forward. His eyes had a sort of shine that lance had only seen when he talked about his conspiracy theories. This was not going to be pretty.

“Just. Everything.” He said obviously intrigued and thirsty for information.

Lance looked down at his hands which were still shaking. 

“I have lycanthropy. It was inherited from my family, so I wasn’t bit or anything.” He informed in a tired voice. Lance’s eyes were drooping heavily and he could feel his skin grow cold, yet he was sweating like mad.

Keith just stared at him.

“Wait. You’re a werewolf?Like folklore, twilight, that kind of werewolf?” Keith asked in a high, disbelieving tone. 

Lance was so so tired and he had barely heard what he said, but he managed to simply nod his head. 

Suddenly a harsh, throat shredding cough ripped through him. And he doubled over, only to let out a loud groan in between coughs at the sudden movement of his battered body. 

This was about when keith noticed how pale lance was and how tired his eyes were.

“Woah lance! Are you okay?” He asked in a concerned tone, taking a step towards him. 

Lance tried to lean away from his concern but he was trapped and had no choice but to let keith feel his forehead. 

The second his hand met the his clammy skin, keith retreated with a hiss. His face scrunched up into a look of great concern. 

“Lance! You’re burning up. What the hell!” Keith exclaimed. 

Lance retreated into the chair at the noise and the unwanted concern. Keith took another step towards lance. 

“We have to get you to the med bay.” He said urgently. 

Lance tried to wave off his concern.  
“Keith im fine dont worry.” He slurred. 

Keith rolled his eyes.

“Obviously not asshole.” He said reaching for lance. 

Lance shrank back and tried to avoid his touch. He was do tired and in so much pain he couldn’t help letting a discomforted whine escape him. 

Keith, seeing Lance’s obvious hesitation kneeled down next to him and slowly moved to place a gentle hand on lance’s knee. He tried his best to soften out his expression and make his voice a bit gentler. 

“Lance,” he said softly. Lance gingerly looked down and met Keith’s soft lavender eyes. He felt a bit more at peace looking into them. 

“Lance,” he said again. “You are sick. We need to get you to the med bay.” He soothed still looking directly into Lance’s eyes. 

Lance said nothing only swallowed and started to look teary eyed. But keith pushed on.

“Alright?” He asked rubbed his knee softly with his thumb. 

After a moment lance let out a choked sob as tears ran freely down his face.

“I don’t want them to find out.” He sobbed.

Keith melted. How could he even stand seeing this boy in so much pain. He had no idea. Without thinking he grabbed lances hand that was resting on his lap and caressed his knuckle with his thumb. He action seemed to calm the boy in front of him and his sobs thinned out. 

“Lance i promise. They wont find out. I will make sure of it.” He said it with such urgency, such certainty. That lance couldn’t help but nod, tears still in his eyes and let keith take him to the infirmary.

Keith smiled softly before standing slowly. 

Lance closed his eyes and let his battered, exhausted body be lifted up and held close into Keith’s arms.

Keith was do warm, so safe and solid. It made Lance’s beaten down form feel a little more whole. 

And before he knew it, his consciousness started to fade. 

Vaguely he heard shouts and concerned voices. But he never ceased feeling keith’s warmth. Eventually he finally let go. He let himself drift away into the darkness.

Where he no longer felt pain.


	3. No cause

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Im back with a new chapter!!! Enjoy!!

Keith didn’t know what to think. 

I mean it had been a standard mission, something they’ve done a million times before. 

Keith had been on guard at the front entrance of the base. He remembered being bored. He remembered itching for a fight. 

Then the alarm was tripped and guards had flooded to where he was. 

He had little trouble fighting them off, but the shear number of the reinforcements proved to be overwhelming and he found himself cornered. Then suddenly a transmission went through.

“Uh. Guys could i get some help here?” Came lance’s struggling voice. Keith’s heart skipped a beat. After a moment, no one even responded to him. He guessed they were wrapped up in their own battles. Keith himself was occupied by a battle of his own but something in him told him he needed to go and help Lance right that moment. 

Keith broke free from the circle of galra and took off running.

He knew lance had been guarding another entrance so he started to head in that general direction, hoping to find him.

When he finally found him his heart dropped to his stomach. 

Lance was completely surrounded on all sides and barely keeping up with the amount of soldiers converging on him. Keith took a step forward but didn’t go to him. 

He sensed something was off. 

The look on Lance’s face. It was upturned into a vicious snarl. His eyes seemed a little less human than they always had been. It made keith hesitate. 

Lance was shooting down robots and soldiers left and right, but he just couldn’t keep up. He looked terrified. Absolutely terrified. Keith was finally about to pounce in when a soldier finally got a hold of him and brought lance to his knees. Thats when lance snarled. Yes snarled at the soldier holding him down.

Keith heard the noise even from where he was behind a structure near where lance was. In retro spect, keith should have intervened right then. But that weird feeling was back. The sense that something was wrong. His instincts told him to stay away. 

Lance threw himself away from the soldier and growled a low inhuman sound. 

That’s when he started to change. His teeth grew more jagged, his nails grew to claws, and his muscles shifted and grew beneath his skin. 

Keith witnessed lance demolish the guards that dared to take on lance and watched as most of them retreated at the sight of this monster before him. 

Keith didn’t know what to think. He was in shock to say the least. 

He watched lance look around at the damage he had caused. And keith thought he saw something like terrible regret on his face. 

He slowly shifted back and let out a few pained cries as he did. Then he fell to the ground, sweating and panting. 

Keith longed to go to lance. To comfort him. To ask what the hell was going on. But something stopped him. Fear, probably. Fear of saying the wrong thing. Fear of hurting him further. Fear of whatever lance was. 

It all stopped him. 

He saw lance drag himself up and against the wall of the base. He looked a bit better so keith let himself stop worrying for a moment. 

Then he heard his name.   
“Keith?” Came shiro’s voice.

Keith hadn’t even realized the others had been talking. 

“Oh. Uh. All good here.” He said still focused on lance across from him. 

Then shiro said something about coordinates and quintessence and realized he probably should head over there. 

He took one last look at lance and then made his way to the room with the quintessences.

He told himself all the way that lance would be fine and he’d ask him about it when they got back.

——-

After they had loaded up the quintessence, shiro and him made their way to their lions. Along the way shiro kept stealing quick concerned glances.

“Okay spill.” He finally said. 

Keith shot a look at shiro and then looked away.

“What?” Keith asked. Shiro scoffed.

“Don’t play dumb with me keith. I can tell when your bothered by something.” Shiro informed.

Keith sighed. 

Of course shiro of all people would know something was wrong. 

But keith really didn’t feel like spilling what he had seen, especially before he talked to lance about it so he let it drop by saying nothing. 

It wouldn’t have been the first time he had ended a conversation like that and it wouldn’t be the last. 

They made their way back to the castle and when keith landed in the hangar he sat in his lion for a moment, deciding what to do. 

In the end he decided to confront lance directly.

He got out of his lion, patting red goodbye as he went. 

He went to the dining room where the rest of the paladins were. But lance wasn’t there. 

He checked the training deck, the bridge, even Lance’s room. 

He didn’t see him anywhere. 

Lastly he checked blues hanger. 

He entered and saw the blue lion on his haunches as it always was. He didn’t see lance anywhere in here either but decided to check the lion just to be sure. 

Keith approached the robot cautiously with open arms. 

“Hi blue.” He greeted. “Is your paladin in there.” Keith asked. 

For a moment nothing happened. Then the mechanical whirring could be heard indicating the opening of the lion’s mouth. Once the hatch had dropped down to the floor, keith made his way inside.

What he saw was a knocked out lance slumped in his pilots seat. His eyes were closed and a peaceful expression rested on his face. 

Keith’s stomach did that weird little flip it did sometimes. 

“Lance,” keith called. He didnt budge. 

“Lance!” He tried again. Still, nothing. Keith looked around for something to wake lance up with. Eventually he settled on the classic hitting the metal walls with his fist in three consecutive bangs. At first lance didn’t stir, but after another round of banging he started to toss his head slowly back and fourth. But he still didn’t wake up. So keith naturally kicked the wall as hard as he could and poor lance shot forward in panic then immediately groaned in pain. He collected himself for a moment then landed his unfocused eyes on keith.   
“Keith?” Lance slurred.

And the rest in history. 

He had no idea what had been different about that mission. Or what had made that secret reveal itself. But he didn’t really have time to think about it as he rushed a feverish lance to the med bay. Along the way he had run into shiro who was now running along side him.

“And you just found him like that?” He asked as the made their way to the infirmary 

Keith looked down at the boy in his arms. 

His face was painted pink with fever and sweat beaded around his forehead. His breathing was labored, ragged. He was pale and reminded keith a little too much of the patients at the hospital he had to volunteer at after getting in trouble back in middle school.

“Yeah.” Was all he said, too preoccupied to give a full answer. 

When they made it to the infirmary, keith rushed in and set lance down on the center table while shiro went over to the intercom to inform the rest of the team that lance was sick. 

Keith looked down at his face and recalled how much the boy didn’t want the team to know he was a werewolf. He recalled the tears in Lance’s eyes as he begged lance to keep his secret.

At that moment, keith vowed to keep this boys secret with his life. 

Allura and Coran were the first ones to rush in, both with concerned looks on their faces. 

They ran over to lance and matched keith’s distress at the sight of him. 

“What happened?” Allura spoke turning to him. Keith looked helpless. 

“I have no idea. I found him in his lion like this.” He only half lied. He really had no idea what was wrong with lance, but since he was fine before the mission, he assumed it had to do with his little werewolf problem. 

Allura nodded and turned to coran. 

“Run a bio-scan. Find out what’s wrong   
with him.” She ordered, not unkindly.

Coran nodded and rushed over to the console where he typed something in on the keyboard. A holographic imagine of lance’s anatomy appeared in front of them with the words “searching for disturbances” above the image. 

After a moment it was still searching. Keith didn’t think much of it but looking over and seeing coran and allura’s nervous glances sent alarms going off in his head.

“What?” He asked as hunk and pidge ran in.

Neither of them answered and the machine just kept searching. 

“What?” Keith repeated getting more and more nervous. 

The machine let out a loud obnoxious beep and the word error at the top of the image. 

Everyone had identical expressions of unease on their face. 

“I don’t understand.” Allura whispered, staring up at the screen. 

Keith was getting impatient.

“Allura. What does that mean.” He asked. Finally she turned to him, eyebrows creased. 

“He’s not sick.” She stated. Pidge adjusted her glasses.

“What do you mean. He looks pretty sick to me?” Pidge questioned. Allura shook her head.

“He is but there isn’t a cause. No virus no nothing.” She explained.

“How can that be?” Hunk asked. Allura turned back to lance. He was now whimpering quietly under his breath. It was barely audible but in such a quiet space it seemed to echo. Everyone turned to him. 

Coran walked over from the console and put a hand on hunk’s shoulder. 

“It means magic is involved.” He said. 

Keith could feel the rooms mood turn dark. They all knew of druid magic. They all knew how truly disturbing it was, shiro more than any of them. But keith knew it wasn’t druid magic but another type he couldn’t quite explain.

Nevertheless he could feel the beginning of something starting. And he knew they’d never be the same again.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Im so sorry this took so long!! I hope you enjoy!

It had been a few days and lance was struggling. After he had woken up, the team had crowded around him in concern. Asking him if he had been around any dark magic lately. He tried to laugh it off and make a joke, but it fell flat due to everyone’s concern. 

They scolded him for not taking this seriously and reluctantly he gulped and told them he hadn’t. No one asked why he wasn’t suprised at the notion of dark magic. But they all thought he knew more than he was letting on.

After they questioned him a bit more on how he was feeling, lance got pretty tired out. His eyes started to droop and he found that he couldn’t keep his head up all that well. Keith noticed this along with the fact that he looked like he wanted to sink into a hole.   
“I think he should get some rest.” He said out of nowhere. They all looked at him in suprise. He hadn’t said a word that whole time. But thats when they began to see lance’s sagging shoulders and the weariness of his gaze, and they knew keith was right. They wanted to be with him and find out what was going on but eventually they laid lance down on the padded table and tucked him in. He was out the second his head hit the pillow and they were all too worried about him. 

One by one they all exited the infirmary, all but keith. He stayed back a little while longer and watched the resting face of his teammate. He thought about his secret and how he was the only one on the team to know. It made keith a little proud. And it made him feel good that Lance trusted him enough to let him in on his burdens. 

He decided that lance wouldn’t want to wake up alone in his state so keith pulled up a chair and sat beside the sleeping paladin. 

Lance woke up every once in a while after that, but was only able to stay consious for a few minutes at a time. He tired his best to stay awake, but he always failed. And he always stopped fighting the fatigue when his teammates told him it was okay to rest. 

Over time he started to look a bit better, and he slept a bit less. But overall the team knew he wasn’t really getting better. He still couldn’t stand on his own and he had no appetite if any kind. They tired to get to the bottom of why this was happening, but lance just popcorned around the questions. He tired to sound sincere but when things hit too close to him he would make a joke. 

At this point the team knew he was hiding something. They just didn’t know what, and they certainly weren’t going to pry. Lance was sick and tired and if he was hiding something it was for good reason. The team kept telling themselves that but they knew deep down they would have to confront the boy at some point. 

They also noticed how protective keith seemed to be of the boy. He would stay at his side nearly every moment. He would dode on him and whisper words of comfort when lance was fitful. He kept close to the blue paladin and made sure he had everything he needed. 

The team loved to see them getting along. Well they were doing better than getting along. They seemed so close and the team wondered why that was. They had seen it building up for sometimes. Subtle touches. Little glances. But they never knew they would jump to being so direct so suddenly. They reasoned that lance being sick simply brought out the affection that laid dormant. 

But one day while shiro was walking into the infirmary to check up on Lance and keith, he had overheard something. It was only the tailend of the conversation but it was enough to leave him thinking.  
“ lance you have to tell them sometime.” Keith said disapprovingly. Lance only sighed.  
“Keith it’ll be fine i don’t have to tell them.” He said in his tired scratchy voice. Keith only glared at him. Neither of them noticed shiro standing in the doorway. And neither of them noticed when he left. 

Shiro made the safe assumption that keith knew something about lance’s conditon as well. How could he keep it from them? From him? They were a team, and that information could very well safe lance’s life. He decided to confront keith when he left lance. 

It was hours before keith joined the rest of the team in the dining hall. They all let him slide in without bombarding him with too much attention. They all gave him a small smile or nod before continuing their conversations over their meals. 

All but shiro. Keith sat down and simply starred at his dinner while shiro stared at him. It was quite a while before keith noticed. When he did he gave shiro and questioning look before gestured for him to follow. Keith skooted out his chair in confusion and followed shiro briskly out of the room leaving the whole team looking after them. 

When they were out in the hallway shiro whipped around and faces keith with a hard expression. He crossed his arms over his chest, making keith want to crawl into a hole.   
“Keith. I over heard you and lance talking. What arent’t you telling us?” He asked, getting right to the point. Keith looked away.  
“Shiro, i-,”   
“No avoiding the question. Lance may not ever get better on his own. We need to find out what’s going on. Whatever you two are keeping frim us might save his life.” Keith was ashamed. He knew he should have just told everyone frim the start. But lance REALLY doesnt want anyone knowing his secret. And keith wasn’t about to spill his darkest skeletons to shiro without his permission. He took a collective breath.  
“Shiro i understand. But it’s not my place to give away lance’s secrets. You’ll have to ask hun youself.” He said composed. Shiro looked like he wanted to hurl himself out an airlock. He rubbed rhe bridge of his nose.  
“Keith. I love that you are respecting lance’s privacy, but you know he won’t tell us.” He gave an exasperated sigh.  
“It would be so easy to fix this if you guys would just tell us what’s going on!” He said. Kieth looked sympathetic. He opened his mouth to say he was sorry and he’ll get lance to talk, but just then alarms blared through the air. Red lights flashing rhythmically. Keith and shiro looked at each other before taking off to the bridge.  
Alluras voice came over the intercome.  
“We’re under attack! Paladin’s to your lions’l


End file.
